Homemade Bagels

Chewy, fragrant, delicious homemade bagels. Very good just as they are, excellent when lightly toasted with a little butter or cream cheese. Adapted from Emeril Lagasse’s bagel recipe for the bread machine, and to include whole-wheat flour.

Place the water, flours, gluten, sugar, salt and yeast in the pan of a 2-pound bread machine (a smaller-capacity bread machine will not handle this amount of flour). Turn on the dough cycle. Check after 5 minutes and add more water or flour if needed, keeping in mind that dough should be heavier than bread dough.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly spray with olive oil cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. This will help prevent the bagels from sticking.

When dough is ready, remove it from bread machine onto a lightly floured surface and punch down. Divide into 12 equal pieces, about 3-3.5 ounces each. Form each piece of dough into a smooth ball by repeatedly gathering the sides of the ball and tucking underneath. Roll each ball into an 8-inch log. Join the ends, place fingers through the hole and roll the ends together to create a bagel shape.

Place the shaped bagels on a the prepared baking sheets. Cover with a clean cloth, and let rise 30 minutes.

Ten minutes before bagels should be done rising, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large, heavy pot, bring 10 cups of water and a tablespoon of sugar to a boil. Add the bagels to the water, 2-3 at a time, and boil 30 seconds on each side.

Using a slotted wide spatula, transfer the bagels to a clean towel to briefly drain, then back to the baking sheets. They won't look too pretty at this point, in fact they'll look like they have a bad case of cellulite, but no worries, things will smooth out after they are baked. Not that they are going to be perfectly round and smooth like store-bought bagels - they will likely end up a little misshapen, but that just proves they are homemade!

Brush the tops of the bagels with the egg wash. Sprinkle with toppings, if desired. Bake 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack before enjoying.